Cylindrical steel drums conventionally have end walls sealingly fixed to a cylindrical side wall with flanges provided in one of the end walls receiving screw plugs so that the contents may be filled and discharged through the flanged openings. For many products a lining such as a plastic-type lining is required to protect the structure of the drum from contacting the contents. One known method of applying a suitable inert coating to the interior of such a drum is to melt a plastic coating onto the interior surfaces of the drum while rotating the drum at elevated temperature, a particulate supply of material for forming the plastic coating being first inserted into the drum.
Another approach has been to manufacture blow-moulded free-standing plastics liners which are placed inside the drum during its assembly and before the drum is shipped to the customer. Such liners, however, are expensive and a problem has existed with respect to the replacement of the liner when the drum is reconditioned. Since the liners are blow-moulded free-standing liners, the wall thickness is relatively large and rigid and thus transportation and storage of these liners is very expensive.
With this problem in mind, it has also been proposed to manufacture a liner which, although being relatively heavy and having a substantial wall thickness, is designed to be foldable to reduce storage and transportation volume. However, such liners have creases at the folds and these creases are difficult to remove and may initiate premature failure of the liner.
The limitations of the previous proposals are such that new and useful alternatives would be desirable.